Michigan State University fans color Pasadena green for Rose Parade

Michigan State University Marching Band performs during the 125th Rose Parade in Pasadena on Wednesday January 1, 2014. Performing during the parade were 19 high school, college and volunteer bands. (Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/Pasadena Star-News)

PASADENA >> Michiganders were colored several shades of green for the historic Rose Bowl parade on Wednesday. However, it wasn’t green with envy because Southern California was about 50 degrees warmer than Michigan was on New Year’s Day, or green from nausea after wild New Year’s Eve celebrations the night before.

It was green with school pride to support the first Michigan State University Spartans appearance in the Rose Bowl since 1988.

“I think it takes our program to the next level,” said MSU junior Spencer Taylor, who blended in with a sea of family and friends wearing different shades of green, many in garb that also sported the football team’s chiseled-chin Spartan mascot.

MSU might be hundreds of miles away and much further than Stanford, their opponent at Wednesday’s 100th Rose Bowl game, but MSU students and alumni decked out in Spartan swag crammed Pasadena at this year’s Tournament of Roses to give it a presence as strong as Stanford’s.

“I think your heart is always with your school,” said Kristine Turner, Temecula resident and MSU class of 1987 graduate. Turner was posted up on Colorado Boulevard near Mentor Avenue by 4 p.m. on Tuesday with prime seats for the Rose Parade, decked out in everything from a green shirt that read “Smitten with the Mitten,” referring to the shape of Michigan state, to sparkling green nail polish.

“There’s something about Spartacus and something about the green and white,” Turner said. “I always knew I wanted to go to MSU. It’s a huge school and a gorgeous campus.”

Up and down Colorado Boulevard, banter and chants for MSU burst from the groups wrapped in green shirts, jerseys, blankets and, in extreme cases, with green bodies. Jay Tuggle, MSU class of 1967 and a resident of Almont, Mich., was happy to attend just wearing a green Spartan pullover and jeans.

“I just wanted to come to it,” Tuggle said. “It was a bucket list thing. I’ll have a good time no matter what.”

Johnny Spirit, a bike-riding, green-painted guy made his appearance at the Rose Parade like he was home at Spartan Stadium as a green and white float made its way down the Rose Parade. When someone would randomly yelled “Go green!” at least a few people in earshot would yell back “Go white!” It’s what you do at any MSU sporting event, according to MSU junior Kyleigh Surdell.

Surdell was part of the green sea on Colorado Boulevard that included senior Michael Uggeri; Taylor, the MSU junior; and Taylor’s father Bob, whose last trip to the Rose Bowl was in 1988 to watch the Spartans barely beat USC 20-17.

For the generations of MSU fans, it’s not just rowdy game day behavior or coloring yourself green that makes you a Spartan fan. For Sean Kavanagh, 1980 MSU graduate and resident of Livonia, Mich., it takes strength to be an MSU fan.

“We have perseverance and we have a never-quit attitude,” Kavanagh said. “The team has done so well this year, and it shows that nose-to-the-grind.”

According to Turner, it takes “heart,” “fierce dedication” and a “sense of fun” to be an MSU fan.

“You have to have a fierce dedication to desire to defend your school,” she said. “We work hard, we play hard.”

But the characteristics have to be there all the time, no matter how long it takes for MSU to make it to the Rose Bowl again.